Compilation
Mimosa farnesiana

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Name

Identification
Mimosa farnesiana L. [family FABACEAE: MIMOSOIDEAE ] (stored under name); Acacia farnesiana (L.) Willd. [family FABACEAE: MIMOSOIDEAE ]
Related name
  • Mimosa tortuosa
  • Mimosa farnesiana
  • Vachellia farnesiana
  • Acacia farnesiana

Flora

Entry for ACACIA farnesiana (L.) Willd. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1959) Author: J. P. M. Brenan
Names
ACACIA farnesiana (L.) Willd. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], Sp. Pl. 4: 1083 (1806); L.T.A.: 835 (1930); T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949); U.O.P.Z.: 102 (1949); Gilb. & Bout. in F.C.B. 3: 164 (1952); Consp. Fl. Angol. 2: 278 (1956); F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 1: 499 (1958). Type: uncertain, based primarily on Linnaeus, Hort. Ups.: 146 (1748).
Mimosa farnesiana L. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], Sp. Pl.: 521 (1753)
Information
Shrub 1.5–4 m. high. Young branchlets glabrous or nearly so, purplish to grey; epidermis not obviously peeling off; glands (as on peduncles) few and inconspicuous. Stipules spinescent, usually short, up to 1.8(–3) cm. long, never inflated; other prickles absent. Leaves with a small gland on petiole and sometimes one on the rhachis near the top pair of pinnae; pinnae 2–7 pairs; leaflets 10–21 pairs, 2–7 mm. long, 0.75–1.75 mm. wide, very rarely larger, with both midrib and lateral nerves visible and somewhat raised beneath. Flowers bright golden-yellow, sweetly scented, in axillary pedunculate heads; involucel at apex of peduncle. Calyx and corolla glabrous outside except for extreme tips of lobes. Pods (Fig. 16/38, p. 67) indehiscent, straight or curved, subterete and turgid, dark brown to blackish, glabrous, finely longitudinally striate, 4–7.5 cm. long, 0.9–1.5(–2) cm. in diameter. Seeds chestnut-brown, smooth, elliptic, thick, only slightly compressed, 7–8 mm. long, 5.5 mm. wide; areole 6.5–7 mm. long, 4 mm. wide.
Range
DISTR. U3 probably native of tropical America, doubtfully so in Africa (not in our area) and Australia; widely introduced in the tropics and often becoming wild. Cultivated elsewhere in our area, e.g. in U4 and T3
Distribution
UGANDA Mbale District Tororo, Mar. 1935, Cree 21!
Notes
Grown for ornament and for its fragrant flowers which are used to make perfume. The pods of A. farnesiana are most distinctive and make the species easy to recognize. If they are absent, then it may be helpful to recall that no African acacia but this has the following combination of features: — absence of “ant-galls”, leaflets with the lateral nerves raised and somewhat prominent beneath, and bright yellow flowers in non-paniculate heads. A further outstanding but less easily seen difference is that the anthers of A. farnesiana lack, even in bud, the small often caducous apical gland which is present in all the other capitate-flowered acacias native of our area.

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